....because when you *think* you can do it better, you should

mostly because I think she's cute.....

Pictures taken - check

Monday afternoon I took the kids to Black's to get their pictures taken. Jack had his birthday photo shoot and then they took the kids Christmas card picture.

I spent the afternoon wrapping 3 boxes in Christmas wrapping paper and packing things to take. I took a little tree as well. I also made some snacks for the kids to eat while I was picking out the pictures. I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and packed some cheese balls. I packed a juice box for each of them too.

I can! not! wait for you guys to see the pictures. Jack had a blast! They got some adorable pictures. I hate waiting for them to come in. It's the worst part.

The picture above is from Black's blog. He's a bit of a Peachy Pie fan and called her Princess the whole time. The boys walked in and he said "Where is my Princess". You should have seen his princess bat her eyes and twirl around. Lordy.

Halloween 2009

Halloween 2009 was a success! The day before, it snowed. Not just snow, but it snowed snow balls. Snow chunks. It was crazy. It was cold and wet.

Not today though. Nope. It was perfect. I don't think we reached 60, but we had sunshine and that's almost as good.

I've been waiting for Halloween for weeks. We decided that Claire would be Strawberry Shortcake and my mind went crazy. I decided that I wanted to color her hair pink. Anyone can put on a wig or spray that crap on their hair. Pink hair it would be!

Here she is getting ready for her transformation.
One of my co-workers, Natae, helped me apply the pink. I needed it put on quickly and Natae was willing to help, so I took her up on it.After the color was done I put her hair in rollers. Such a happy camper.As if life could get any better.....
She got to sit under the dryer which made her SUPER happy. She loved it!Then it was time to get her costume on. She was so excited! We got the dress on, the tights. I put on her hat and she wasn't all too excited anymore. I took it off to air-brush some cheeks on her. She wasn't overly fond of that either. I think she'd had her fill of mommy/daughter time. She even mentioned missing her brothers.

Finally, it was time to put on her fake lashes and her look would be complete. She asked me not to, but being the Halloween Mommy Dearest that I am, I just....kinda....did it. And got this fab pic.
And then down came the tears. Not only did she not want the hat, or make-up, she REALLY didn't want the lashes. At all. She cried and cried. Did I mention that I air-brushed her make-up? Yeah. Well she finally quit crying and decided that the hat would work out just fine. (I kinda told her that she'd have to wear her stocking hat if she didn't choose this one and then NOBODY would know what she was supposed to be. See? Halloween Mommy Dearest. I'm not proud of it. Well, not super proud of it, at least.)

The end result.

Strawberry Shortcake!

Here are all the kids. Nathan was a baseball player. I tried to explain to him that Halloween wasn't career day, but he didn't care. He wanted to be a baseball player anyway. And really, he took one for the team last year. He was the Tin Man. His friends would walk by with super cool costumes as Nathan tried to hide behind the nearest tree - because he was the Tin Man. So baseball player it was.

If you asked Jack what he was he'd tell you a bat. After all, he had wings. :) A devil wasn't a stretch for him, that's for sure. He had a b*l*a*s*t trick-or-treating. He loved every second of it. He asked almost everyone if we could come in their house. It was pretty funny. One guy said, "Maybe you can come in, I don't know, maybe next week". I'm almost positive Jack penciled him in.
Here is the gang: Dawson, Caymen, Claire, Nathan and Jack.Here are the kids with their loot. For reals - nobody needs that much candy. But! We'll take it. ;)

Pumpkin painting

Monday we picked out our pumpkins. Each of the kids picked one out (and loved every second of it...) and then I chose one. I don't think I'll be able to carve the one that Jack picked, so I thought I better get a 'stand-by'.

We also got mini pumpkins for them to paint. They had a blast!!

You know what?

You're Cranky!

(Do you love how he says it with a big, fat, smile?)

Do you love it?

I got my hair cut and colored Sunday night. Do you love it as much as I do? The red is HD again and again Justin doesn't like it. But I sure do. Oh! And do you love the self portrait? It drives me crazy when I see a self portrait, but I had to. HAD TO! :)
Oh yeah! Here are my blue nails. Speaking of blue, Jack told me yesterday that he liked my byou (blue) hair. Um, close sweetie. :)

You know you're tired when....

You fall asleep giving yourself a neb.

Butterflies

This has been such a fun project at our house. I hope the kids want to do it again next year. The only draw back is that the caterpillars and chrysalis' don't smell all that great. Other than that, the life of a Monarch is unbelievable.

We started with these little guys....Jack couldn't get enough of them.

When they are ready to make a chrysalis, they make a J, like this.

Then they shed their skin and made a chrysalis. Remember?Before they get ready to hatch, it would appear that they turn black. However, the chrysalis isn't black at all, it's just the black of the Monarch's wings that you see.She the wings?The chrysalis is actually clear.Here are a couple of them after they hatched.You have to make sure their wings are fully dried before you try to set them free. Here is one that we took out too soon.I ended up bringing it back in so the wings could dry more.

Did you know they migrate to Mexico? If you have a 2nd grader you sure do.

Did you know that you can tell the difference between boys and girls? Here is a picture of a boy. I didn't make the caption big enough, but it says "This is how you can tell it's a boy. There is a swelling in the line." I had no idea!

And would you believe that I got video of one hatching? You'll be able to hear that I'm a little excited about it. Ok, so I was a lot excited about it. I couldn't believe that I got video of one making the chrysalis and coming out.

What a wonderful, beautiful and simply amazing process!

DSU Homecoming Parade

On Friday I was super nervous what kind of weather we'd be having on Saturday for the parade. I told the kids that I'd take them rain or shine. Thank you Jesus for giving us shine. :)

I called Grandma Sandy and Papa Ken that morning to see if they'd want to sit with us. The kids thought it was a great idea. Tracy and her kids were in the parade, so we were happy to save them a spot.

It was cute - Natey woke up Saturday morning and was in a panic because "WHAT IF DAWSON HAS TO WALK IN FRONT OF A FIRE TRUCK????". Dawson isn't a fan of loud noises and Natey was so worried that his buddy's parade experience would be ruined due to a fire truck. Luckily, Dawson wasn't near a fire truck.

How about some visual aids. Here the kids are waiting for the parade to start.I'm telling you, Jack is a total gamer. He's playing Chuzzle on my phone.Here is the Madison High School Marching Band. They sounded great! I really love the bands.The Rost girls made appearances at different times in the parade. Amber stood with us until Shayla went by. I love me some Amber.Check out this cool truck. I don't know who owns it, but it's awesome!The Dueul High School band was there too, and not that I have interest in them, but I loved their outfits the most. :)The families of the 211th walked in the parade. I think we got a half a bag of candy from them. The kids L*O*V*E*D it! Here are Tracy and Caymen.

And Katie and Braelyn.

Remember when the Shriners had those itty bitty motorcycles? Well they are movin' on up. I wonder how many hours they spent practicing this?

Natey's right, totally cool!

Later that day, Tracy and I went to Sioux Falls. I had a blast. I even got my nails done. Other than doing them myself, I've never had them done 'professionally'. It was fun - and now I have blue tips. :) Check out Tracy's blog to find out about her parade experience.

Once bitten, twice shy

I chose to believe that when Ferber came back from his last deployment that he was home for good. In my brain I knew that wasn't right, but I let my heart believe it. I guess it was just easier that way.

Here we are again. Although this deployment isn't for as long, it's just as hard. For some reason I thought it would be easier. I don't have a clue why I thought it was going to be, but I did.

We had supper with Tracy and Ferber last Thursday night. It was just like old times. The boys ganged up against us and Tracy and I acted as if it weren't happening. When we left that night, we decided that we weren't going to say good-bye, not yet.

I wasn't going to go to the Activation Ceremony. I didn't like it in 2003, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like it in 2009. Then, I realized that I was being selfish. It wasn't about what I wanted to do, or not do in this case. It was about showing my friend(s) that I support them and care for them.

So Natey and I went. I did well through most of the ceremony. Then I lost it....and I couldn't get it back. Heath is a police officer and works with Justin when he's not on active duty with the guards. He spoke at the ceremony. He got chocked up - and that's when I lost it.Here are a few other pictures from the ceremony. Caymen wasn't really into it. She was into seeing what Grandma Sandy was doing, then what we were doing, then what her Mom and Dad were doing - and so forth. ;)
No matter how many times I tried, I couldn't get this picture to go the other way. So there.

I was so very proud of our community. I was happy that the gym was just as packed for this as it would be for a basketball game.This young kid, 18 or 19 years old, was being interviewed right in front of us. I couldn't hear all of what he was saying, but Ferber confirmed that this kid just finished up Basic and volunteered to go with the unit. He's 18 or 19 years old! I couldn't commit to a basket of nachos when I was his age. His actions are commendable.Natey spoke to Grandma Sharelle that night. He told her all about the ceremony. I don't know exactly how the conversation went, but Nathan couldn't believe the "Governor of Pierre" was there.

And so was John Thune.

Both men shook hands with all the soldiers. I was very happy to see that they looked each and every one in the eye and said Thank You to them. Nicely done gentlemen.

Here are a few more that I loved......

Saying good-bye to Ferber on Saturday night sucked. I bawled and bawled. Natey and Claire gave him a hug too, and said good-bye. Poor Natey bawled all the way home. When we got home he said "I missed my dad when he worked at the fair for a week. We won't see Mark again until Clarie's in kindergarten" as tears fell from his face.

I thought this time would be different. I thought it would be easier. I've been friends with this man for 12 years. He's been my buddy for an awful long time. And I was wrong. It hurts - again.

I asked Tracy to take a picture of Ferber and I before we went to the football game Friday night. I didn't want to wait and take it on Saturday when I knew for sure I'd have cry eyes.

Not many things or people can bump Keith Urban off my wallpaper. However, this did.

Pray for Ferber, Heath, and the 111 other soldiers of the 211th Guard Unit. Pray for Peace for their families.....and friends.